The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 4

Articles in this issue

• A turn-style.

  The Owl's regular humorous column ranges over the Springfield editors' disputes, cycling as a self-advertising sport, a cowboy's pistol-equipped bicycle, the disappearance of Café Coulter from 59th St. and 5th Ave., and State Consul George R. Bidwell's quiet gift of a Rudge racer as a prize to the Ixions.
• RECORD BREAKING EXTRAORDINARY.

  Stillman G. Whittaker rode a 51-inch American Champion at Crawfordsville, Indiana on September 24 under A.C.U. rules, setting new American 50-mile (2h. 55m. 46.5s.) and 100-mile (6h. 43m. 59s.) road records, beating George Weber's American 50-mile mark by over nine minutes and McCurdy's 100-mile record by over an hour.
• THE ADVANCEMENT OF CYCLING.

  Editorial arguing that cycling's growth in New York would be best served by popularizing the daily wearing of knee-breeches for business, eliminating the tiresome costume changes that deter potential riders, with supporting comment from the New York Sun and a note on Whittaker's 300-mile road performance.
• REMARKABLE ROAD RIDING.

  Dispatch from Crawfordsville, Indiana corrects and expands on Whittaker's records: 100 miles in 6h. 1m. 15s. beating both the world road record by 25 minutes and Ives's Springfield track record, with 200 miles in 15h. 10m. 30s. and a 24-hour total halted at 23h. 46m. 16.6s.—forty-one miles ahead of the best previous mark.
• THREE DAYS' TOUR ALONG THE NORTH SHORE.

  Twenty-eight ladies and gentlemen led by Charles R. Dodge and Abbot Bassett of Chelsea toured from Trinity Square, Boston through Cambridge, Medford, Malden, Lynn, Beverly Farms, and Manchester to Magnolia and Gloucester over three days on tandems, sociables, tricycles, and bicycles, completing a 21-mile ride around Cape Ann.
• THE IXION CLUB'S RACE MEET.

  Detailed account of the Ixion Club's first English-style handicap race meet at the Roseville, NJ track, organized by W.C. Herring with $1,500 in prizes including a Paris Salon 'Sleeping Beauty' bronze; bitter cold and wind kept crowds thin, but C.A. Stenken, A.B. Rich, H.J. Hall Jr., and W.E. Crist divided the five handicap events.
• THE INDIANAPOLIS TOURNAMENT.

  Two-day tournament (October 8–9) at the Indianapolis Athletic Club grounds, with Whittaker as starter, featured Van Sicklen, Hollingsworth, Pardee, Nicholson, and Wainwright; Van Sicklen won the Pope Cup in the 20-mile finale in 1h. 4m. 0.5s. and Hollingsworth won the Indiana State championship mile in 2.51.
• ROWE "GATHERS IN" MORE RECORDS.

  W.A. Rowe rode five miles against time at Crawfordsville on October 13, paced by Adams, Haradon, and Hendee and timed by Whipple, Robinson, and Shean, breaking existing mile-by-mile records from one through five miles.
• WHAT FIVE YEARS OF CYCLING COST. A COMMON OR GARDEN EXPERIENCE.

  A veteran cyclist initialed L.B.G. itemizes 7,500 miles over five seasons on six successive machines—Star, Star, Light Roadster, Sanspareil, Rucker, and Yale—with cascading repair bills totaling some $876 by the editor's reckoning, advising beginners to buy only wheels whose spare parts are easily procured.
• ROWE MAKES A THREE MILES RECORD.

  On October 14, W.A. Rowe broke the two- and three-mile records at Lynn, paced by Adams, Haradon, and Hendee and timed by Whipple, Robinson, and Shean, riding each mile in approximately 2.35½.
• THE OWL.

  The Owl's second column covers the Ixion program's $200 printing profit for F.P. Prial, the etymology of 'Columbia' traced to Harvard poems of 1761, the impossibility of cycle racing in winter as demonstrated by the Ixions, and a satirical notice on Western cycling's defiance of Eastern dictation from 'P. Firebird and E. Blossomrod.'
• RECORD RIDING AT LYNN.

  Record attempts at the Lynn track in connection with the Morgan-Armaindo tandem: Frazier rode the mile in 2m. 38.4s. and the half in 2m. 19.75s. for a new Star mark; Woodside covered ten miles in 29m. 15.2s., failing the professional record by over a minute; and W.J. Morgan and L. Armaindo covered 100 miles in 7h. 57m. and 200 miles in 18h. 31m. in their 24-hour tandem tricycle attempt.
• THE MASSACHUSETTS CLUBS ROAD RACES.

  The Massachusetts Club's road race meeting saw W.S. Doane win the 30-mile event in a new record of 1h. 59m. 38.4s. despite a header at Chestnut Hill Reservoir, W.K. Lewis win the 12-mile club race in 56m. 13.4s., and R.C. Beazley win the 13.5-mile race in 53m. 15.4s.; a contestant took a header at the Reservoir entrance in each of the three events.
• ROWE'S RECORDS.

  The Springfield Union attributes Rowe's record-breaking success to Manager Atkins's systematic method—physical conditioning under trainer Asa Wendell, precise per-lap time schedules for every ride—allowing Atkins to monitor Rowe's pace in real time and consistently finish several seconds under the mapped schedule.
• RACE MEETING AT LYNN.

  The Lynn Cycle Club's meet drew only 300 spectators in boisterous cold; W.J. Morgan and Louise Armaindo set a new five-mile tandem record of 18m. 28.6s. beating the Smith mark of 20m. 28s., D.E. Hunter won the two-mile amateur handicap from scratch in 6.21.2s., and Chas. Frazier won the five-mile professional handicap in 15.25.6s.
• THE HISTORY OF A TANDEM TRICYCLE.

  A humorous first-person narrative from the perspective of an English tandem tricycle shipped to a rich New Yorker in Newark: incorrectly disassembled and reassembled by amateur 'mechanics,' it seized up and broke its bearing cases five miles into a Tarrytown ride, was returned to Newark with a refusal to pay, and was eventually resold by the dealer at a $70 loss.
• THE COLUMBIA BICYCLE CLUB'S MEET.

  Race results from the Columbia Bicycle Club's meet at Attleboro, Massachusetts, where C.W. Ware of Marblehead and F.B. Brigham of North Attleboro dominated multiple events, and Brockton defeated Columbia of North Attleboro in the one-mile team race.
• ODDS AND ENDS.

  Miscellaneous shorts: the Ixion program was a typographical success for Central Press; the Ilderan Bicycle Club's 25-mile Coney Island Boulevard road race was won by W.M. Richardson in 1h. 39m. 35.2s.; A.B. Barkman of the Brooklyn B.C. set a new Long Island 24-hour road record of 205½ miles from Hempstead, beating the previous 202-mile mark.
• BICYCLING NEWS.

  International and domestic shorts: G.P. Mills rode 294½ miles in 24 hours and set a world 50-mile road record of 2h. 47m. 35.6s. on an 'Ivel' safety; Rowe claims a half-mile in 1:09; London clubs are forming a winter boxing club; John S. Prince is settling in Omaha as Gormully & Jeffery's agent; the Wakefield Club's 10-mile road race was won by Patch in 43m. 15s.
• FIXTURES.

  Brief calendar notice of a single upcoming event: the Inter-Club Road Racing Association's 25-mile road race at Roseville, NJ, on November 2.